Slip into my thoughts and do watch your step

Daily Archives: May 28, 2018

Part 28

For perhaps ten seconds Izzy had trouble keeping her eyes open, even though the light was low. Once she was able to keep them ope for more than a few seconds it became apparent she was in a room that wasn’t in her apartment, and given that she found herself positioned on her back, she assumed she was in a hospital.
Now that she had something of a grip on the where, the how and why were nagging her—

The door to her room opened and a woman wearing nurses scrubs entered the room. “Good. You are awake.” She came in and checked her vitals on the monitor before speaking to her directly. “How are you feeling? Still a little dizzy?”

For some reason the question resonated with her. “Just a little. I had trouble keeping my eyes open at first.”

“That’s to be expected.” The nurse checked the IV before elevating the head of Izzy’s bed slightly. “I understand you took a nasty blow to your head when you fell; gave yourself a pretty good concussion.”

Izzy closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “That’s nice to know.”

The nurse said nothing else, only turned and headed out of the room, softly closing the door behind her. It didn’t stay closed, however: about a minute later the door opened and a woman who Izzy had difficulty placing entered, shutting the door so gently it almost didn’t make a sound when it latched. She approached the bed. “I see you’re finally awake, Ms. Mundy.”

It was only after the woman spoke that Izzy was able to place a name with the voice. “Ms. Gillford. What are you doing here?”

“Checking up on you, my dear.” She pulled a chair closer to the bed before sitting and getting right to the point. “You passed out at work. A few of your co-workers said you walked out of your office, made it about half-way to a printer, and collapsed. You were rushed to the hospital and were there for three hours before we received some interesting phone calls…”

Since Izzy hadn’t an idea about what happened, the only thing she could do was ask questions. “Because?”

“Your blood work came back with some rather interesting results. They were particularly puzzled by a protein marker they found. At first they thought you might have cancer, but after our people looked at the results we identified it easily.”

Uh uh. “Umm, yeah…” Izzy tried to appear as sheepish as possible, which wasn’t difficult given her current condition. “I didn’t think—”

“You had intercourse with a mermaid.” Ms. Gillford’s expression didn’t change save for a slight rise in her left eyebrow. “I’m assuming your partner was Calista.”

“That… would be a yes.”

Ms. Gillford crossed her legs, her voice remaining soft and conversational. “How exactly did this occur?”

Izzy was able to focus somewhat on events two weeks ago, though details were extremely foggy. “It was Calista’s last night before moving out to Down Below Town. She got permission to drink some champagne. After a couple of glasses we got to talking, we got to cuddling, we expressed certain feelings, and…” Izzy winched as she tried to shrug. “It just happened.”

“It just happened?”

“Yeah. I mean, her, um, well—” Izzy was having difficulty with the word. “Her junk sorta just popped out—”

“Oh, God.” For the first time Ms. Gillford’s expression changed as she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I know. Anyway, she was curious about how it worked and so was I, so we just sorta, you know—” Izzy brought the tipped of her index fingers together and bounced them off each other a couple of times. “Did it.”

Ms. Gillford looked away for a second as she composed herself. “I suppose that was a good thing. After all, with Calista being aroused, there was the possibility of self-insemination—”

“Wait: what?” Izzy winced against as she tried to sit up. “They can do that?”

“Yes, but only if it’s something they absolutely intend on doing.” Ms. Gillford sat back and gave out a small sign. “But for a new mermaid like Calista—one who doesn’t know exactly how everything yet works—there’s always the possibility of that happening.” She eyed Izzy hard. “That was something she was supposed to learn over the next few weeks.”

Izzy turned her head a bit to the right as she mumbled softly. “Guess I beat Harmony to that.” She slowly turned back to Ms. Gillford. “Am I in trouble?”

Ms. Gillford shook her head. “No, you’re not. However, we are going to monitor you for a bit longer before releasing you.”

It took nearly ten seconds before the implications of the last statement hit Izzy. “Wait—I’m in the hospital, so why—?” Then it dawned on her. “I’m in St. Augustine, ain’t I? This the Matenzas River Facility.”

“Correct on both counts.” Ms.Gillford crossed her arm as she ran a finger over her lower lip. “Given what happened, we thought it best our own people monitor you.”

There was something about Ms. Gillford’s statement that bothered Izzy. “Wait a minute: I don’t have any leftover nanoids inside me, do I? I thought they flushed out of Calista a month or so ago.”

“That’s correct, they did. And, no: you don’t have any nanoids inside you.” Ms. Gillford’s express turned severe. “I’ve waited to speak with you for a few days: you were in a coma for almost a week.”

“What?” Izzy didn’t notice her head hurting from raising her voice.

“Yes. Five days ago our doctors thought they may lose you. Fortunately, they were able to save you.”

“Good for them.” Izzy breathed out a long sigh. “So how long am I gonna be here?”

Ms. Gillford cleared her throat. “Doctors say you should be able to travel in three days.”

Izzy’s brow furrowed. “Travel? Why?”

“Isabelle—” Ms. Gillford leaned her elbow upon the bed. “It’s safe to say a career change is in order…”

What Has Gone Before

Check the Past by Date

It’s been a while since I’ve spoken with you. Perhaps speak isn’t the correct way to put things, but it works for me. In a way, I am speaking to you: I’m dictating this with Dragon software. It seems in the past couple of days Dragon has learned my idiosyncrasies far better than before, and […]